Monday, 25 April 2011

ACU to probe provincial graft

A complaint accusing the director of the Kampong Chhnang department of agriculture of siphoning millions of riel from state coffers while driving the department into debt has been lodged with the Anti-Corruption Unit.

The complaint, dated March 23 and obtained by The Post yesterday, accuses Ngan Nany of taking more than 1 million riel [US$246] per year from slaughterhouses and government projects for more than four years. It also claims that Ngan Nany admitted in a meeting on January 11 that he had borrowed millions of riel from the private sector to keep the department afloat. The complaint called for an audit of his assets.

“This corruption has made the department director become a young millionaire in Kampong Chhnang province with many spots of land and houses in the province and houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in Phnom Penh,” it said. Ngan Nany said yesterday that the allegations were exaggerated though he acknowledged his performance as the departmental director had not been perfect.

“People who work are never 100-percent correct,” he said. “It is an exaggeration made by one small group of people who are not happy that they cannot do what they want.”

ACU deputy president Sean Borath said the department would examine the case.